True Colors Tour--Boston Show

Spent the weekend in Boston. It was a great weekend. My first visit to the ICA. But the main reason for the visit was the Boston leg of the True Colors Tour at the Bank of America Pavilion. Overall it was a great, empowering event with some unfortunate technical difficulties and mediocre sound. But the performances were uniformly excellent and added up to an amazing show.

The line-up:

The Gossip provided a strong start to the evening. I think the Cyndi Lauper crowd didn't quite know what to make of The Gossip, but Beth and company put on a rocking first set. This was the first indication that the acoustics were not going to be great.

Dresden Dolls followed with an amazing and engaging set for the hometown crowd. They engaged the crowd, perhaps better than any of the other performers. They did an audience friendly set that included songs from familiar albums and a few new ones. The new single, Shores of California, is great. Check out the video. They also did a groovy version of Coin-Operated Boy that was one of the highlights of the show.

A word about Margaret Cho: It was highly effective to bridge the sets with Margaret rather than intermissions. She was fierce as always ("I'm glad that Jerry Falwell died"). But from Section 6, Row 11, it was often difficult to make out what she was saying. There was no picking up on the nuance of a Margaret Cho performance. The lesbian take on Mickey Avalon was fun, but Mickey really deserved a shout-out.

Rufus Wainwright was up third. The audience members who chatted their way through the performance were annoying (you know who you are, Section 6, Row M). Apparently Rufus was, too. The last time I saw Rufus, he was totally engaging onstage. At True Colors he wasn't. He said nary a word to the audience. The set was mostly from Release the Stars, but I was disappointed that he chose not to do the concert-friendly tracks, like "Rules and Regulations" or "Between My Legs". It was great to see Rufus with his band, but I'd hoped for a stronger set.

Deborah Harry was the first performer to get the audience to its feet. After an amazing "French Kissing in the U.S.A.," she launched into some new material that had me a little nervous about the set. But the second half of the set was rousing and kept the audience moving--even if there was some hope in the air for "Rapture" or "Tide is High."

Erasure took the stage and the audience lept up and stayed up. It was the perfect mix of classic Erasure ("A Little Respect," "I Love to Hate You," "Oh, L'Amour" were standouts) and tracks from the new album. For the, um, newer gays, this was all a revelation. And really, really empowering.

Cyndi Lauper was without a doubt the headliner. This was the third time I've seen her, and she's a master of the stage. Her set seemed to be plagued by technical difficulties, but she managed them with grace. Her duet with Beth on "Time After Time" was another highlight of the event. The choral finale of "True Colors" was also quite moving.

A word about guitars: Cyndi, Rufus and Vince all played guitar at one point in their sets. They seemed self-conscious. Perhaps a little out of their elements.

What a great night, and what a great way to spend time across the generations. Technical difficulties aside, this was special.

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